News 11/28/2016

A woman from Covelo has been arrested for DUI after a fatal crash Thanksgiving night. The CHP reports Davna Reynolds was in a Toyota Tacoma pickup Thursday night just before Midnight when she hit a fence. Her passenger was killed in the crash into the six-foot-tall wire fence which she ended up dragging behind her for about 600 feet. The passenger’s name’s not yet been released, but the CHP says it was a man from Covelo. Cops say they think Reynolds was drinking before the crash.

A man in Clearlake has been killed in a home invasion over the holiday weekend. Police say the victim, who’s name’s not been released was taken to the hospital by friends after he was shot in the chest Friday night. Police say they went to the home where a reported altercation happened and found two other men had been at the home, one of them brought a semiautomatic firearm. Police say as they entered the house, they told those in the house to get on the ground. One refused and during a struggle with a man with the gun, the firearm went off several times and hit him. The two suspects got away.

A man from Windsor gets his stolen truck back on Thanksgiving thanks to a bunch of people who found out about the ripoff on Facebook. Nick Keresey says someone took off in his pickup so he posted a picture of his truck with its license plate last Monday and his Facebook friends and some family started sharing the post as many as 500 times. He had a picture of the suspect within a day and two days later had some of his personal items back, that had been found in garbage cans at a Santa Rosa car wash where someone posted seeing the truck. Cops got involved and an arrest was made Thursday and Keresey got his truck back that night.

The Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team have come across more than 3 dozen pot plants, three pounds of dried or bagged processed marijuana and paraphernalia they say was used for growing. The task force at the home of a Willits Unified School board of trustee member Laurie Harris, armed with a search warrant. Court papers say officers went to the home regarding a pot growing complaint and one of them spotted 12-foot tall marijuana plants growing behind the home that were five feet around with massive amounts of buds. Harris says she has a medical recommendation, but she had more than the allowed amount for a patient. It will now be up to the DA to decide if Harris will be charged with any crime. But deputies destroyed all marijuana above the 10 pound limit, which is legal under Calif. law.

A man from Rio Dell has been arrested for several armed robberies in Humboldt County. Rio Dell police officers say Christian Shepard was seen driving Saturday and when they tried pulling him over for a routine stop he sped off, went off-road and ended up out in the woods overnight. They found the guy early yesterday and arrested him. He was first taken to a hospital for possible hypothermia, then arrested on 10 counts of robbery, felon in possession of a firearm, negligent discharge of a weapon, terrorist threats and violation of probation. He was being held without bail.

Fort Bragg’s in on the wave of the future, agreeing to install four Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations in City-owned parking. There’s been talk on the matter for several years, but now city staff announced the plan at last week’s City Council meeting. Money for the stations comes from the Mendocino Land Trust thru grant funds. Staff has proposed the locations that the council said yes to. They include in the City Hall parking lot and the Footlighters Theater parking lot. There will be two stations at each location.

The Dry Creek Band of Pomo Indians is restoring part of a creek that runs through the Dry Creek Rancheria into the Russian River. The tribe has applied for a $3.5 million state grant so it can restore more of the creek so trout may start to thrive there again. The tribe’s public works manager says they’ve been trying to raise the funds for the work. It comes at the same time they’re working on Dry Creek, with help of the Sonoma County Water Agency. That will restore a six-mile stretch of fish habitat. The money would come from a Calif. ballot measure, Prop. 1, approved 2 years ago for more than $7 billion in bonds to go to water supply projects. The tribe will find out next month if it’s getting the grant.

A man who died at a remote property in Knights Valley has been identified. The Sonoma County sheriff’s office reports Cesar Gonzalez-Rivas of Geyserville was stabbed several times during the Thanksgiving Day assault off Highway 128 between Geyserville and Calistoga. A man from Michigan, Arent Bradt was in jail, held without bail on suspicion of murder. Police found Gonzalez-Rivaz on the ground and Bradt nearby. Gonzalez-Rivas was pronounced dead at the scene.

A man from Maryland has been arrested after police say he threatened to blow up a commercial airplane while it prepared for takeoff at Oakland International Airport. Police say the man told passengers on the Southwest flight, headed to Baltimore, that he planned to blow up the plane when it was in the sky, but the captain was alerted and returned to the gate. The man was taken into custody at the gate, and there were no explosives on him, or on the flight.

Recycling rates in the state are off and locally rates were mixed. Lake Co News reports on the latest data released by CalRecycle showing while the economy in Calif. Got healthier last year, more trash headed to landfills than a year ago. But there was also a drop in the statewide recycling rate. CalRecycle says disposal rates usually go up with a stronger economy. Last year the state dumped 33.2 million tons of material compared to 31.2 million tons in 2014 for residential, business and industry sectors.

More info’s been released about a solo car crash over the weekend that killed two men. It happened early Saturday morning at the intersection of Highway 20 and Highway 29. The CHP says a 27-year-old Lakeport man and a 21-year-old man from Kelseyville died after the driver, the man from Lakeport didn’t make it around a roundabout and hit the roundabout head on. The car went airborne, then landed on its roof in a walnut orchard. The driver and the passenger were trapped in the car and dead. CHP reporting speed was a factor in the crash, but so far they’re not sure if drugs or alcohol were a factor. Both victims were wearing seat belts.

Some complaints at an amusement park in Japan after it had 5,000 dead fish on display under the ice at a skating rink. Space World was deluged with criticism on social media after they opened their rink a couple weeks ago. The rink was closed yesterday for good. There were more than 2 dozen types of dead fish under the rink, called the “Ice Aquarium”, an “attraction never heard about.” The general manager of Space World says they had so many critical messages posted on social media, but they were just trying to give the feeling of being in the ocean, but says now they’re extremely remorseful. The fish were dead before being placed in the water. Now they’ll hold a memorial service for the fish once they’re taken out of the ice.

A woman in Arizona who texted someone by accident, thinking it was her grandson, made good on her offer and had the stranger over for Thanksgiving. Wanda Dench and her family welcomed 17 year old Jamal Hinton to their Phoenix home after the texting mistake a couple weeks ago, that went viral on social media. Dench says she thought she included her grandson’s number in a group text as she invited relatives to the holiday dinner, but it was Hinton who got the note. They exchanged pictures and realized it was the wrong number, but Hinton asked if he could come anyway, and Dence said of course, that’s what grandma’s do. After the exchange was posted on twitter, Dench says she got about 600 texts from others asking if they, too, could grab a plate this Thanksgiving.